I Heart Huckabees

'Pretentious' is good when it's this funny

N Stafford from England , 27/04/2005

'I Heart the Huckabees' brilliantly describes the complexities and the moral haziness of the world in which we live. Movies with this subject matter are usually incredible morbid; the world is portrayed as a moral darkness, 'grey' decisions are made by fat business men, and the hero is some type of social outcast. David O Russell's production, just his The Three Kings before, is a new take on the subject. As with The 3 Kings, O Russell contrasts the dark subject matter against a refreshingly comical background. Rather than sulk about the state we are all in - this film waltzes like a dance through the battlefield - studying the lines that lie between us - and ensuring they are comically crossed. This turns a bleak message about the desperateness of human nature into one of our humanity - and all communicated in a way that doesn't at all bring you down. Laugh as the two factions of Existentialism battle it out - the falseness of a corporation smile crumbling into self pity - the fireman (Mark Wahlberg) who rides his bike to stop fires (to save on gas) - the environmental activist, as he struggles to define the real reasons behind his struggle against corporate America - listen to his laughable poetry, his inner doubts, and watch what flaky sense of reality leads him to the existentialists. I loved this film, and considered it the best film of the year. People say it was pretentious. So what? To say something is pretentious requires an air of pretension too. We are all pretentious in that we value our own opinions over others - a topic this movie covers in much detail.

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I hate Huckabees

Philip Concannon from London , 30/11/2004

David O Russell's self-styled 'Existential comedy' is his first film since the excellent 'Three Kings' and comes as a grave disappointment. Coming across like a nightmare collaboration between Charlie Kaufman and Woody Allen, the film lacks the emotional core of Kaufman's best work and the sly wit of Allen's, leaving nothing more than a series of dull, inconsequential sketches which add up to very little.

There's not much of a plot here but what little there is concerns enviromental activist Albert(Jason Scwartzman), who is troubled by a series of coincidences involving a tall African man. He seeks help from a pair of existential detectives(Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to investigate these incidents and they start to intrude on every aspect of his life. Albert then gets involved in a dispute with Brad(Jude Law), a high-flying executive of the Huckabees chain store, and forms a friendship with troubled firefighter Tommy(Mark Wahlberg).

Russell fills the screen with endless visual tricks(almost all of which are poorly handled), everyone shouts a lot and the film jumps from one surreal skit to the next at a mile a minute. For a while during this picture, I wondered if I just wasn't getting it. But I soon realised that there's actually nothing to get. Russell spends the entire film spewing out numerous half-formed philosophical ideas with no real idea of where they're leading.

The cast make a fair stab at overcoming the material but only a couple of them are succesful. You know you're in trouble when Mark Wahlberg and Jude Law are the best two actors in your film, and that's the case here as only those two have the sense to play it straight(Wahlberg is also responsible for the few genuinely funny scenes). As for the rest, Schwartzman and Tomlin are unbearable while Naomi Watts and Hoffman are simply trying to hard. Isabelle Huppert, however, is completely wasted; if you're going to get one of the world's finest actresses in your film, do try and give her something interesting to do.

This is a deeply unlikeable, unfunny mess of a film; seldom has a picture talked so much, so loudly, and said so little. Russell is a director with potential but has completely neglected any sense of humanity in his desperate strive for 'wackiness' here.

'I Heart Huckabees' is a disjointed, pointless and hugely disappointing affair; totally lacking any real substance, humour or(ironically) heart.

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I Hate Huckabees

Raj from Croydon , 08/08/2005

I don't usually switch a film off before the end but I just couldn't watch this. After an hour I just wasn't sure what I was watching. I didn't find it funny and it just wasn't holding my interest or attention. Maybe I was missing something here but it just wasn't for me so I decided not to endure the remaining 40 minutes or so.

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Not for everyone.

Rob Pickles from Manchester , 10/05/2005

The film distributers publised this film totaly in the wrong way. To make it clear, if you are like me and you question everything and anything in life then you will like this movie. If you aint interested in say why some bubbles in a pint of lager rise quicker than others, then you won't like this film. If you think that example is dumb, you will not like this film. This film was too surreal even for me, the meaning should of been set in a more believable context for me to love it. Instead i just liked the philosphy stuff. So if you like philosphy, then watch it but beaware that the film is a bit silly.

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take it as it comes

A customer from london , 09/09/2005

I really enjoyed this film.

It is true to say it is a bit difficult to get into but thats only because its so different to the standard structure of Hollywood films. I was lucky I knew nothing about it befor hand so approached it with no (should I say, few) preconceptions.

I thought it was a well rounded story that linked its self to its self really smoothly and well. It seemed to set out to ask questions that are ever stressful and ever prominent in our lives, but concludes that it is ok not to know the answers, life is its self confusing.

Did no one else think that the detectives Hoofmann & Tomlin were a metophor for part of our own conciousness vs Huppert, like a devil on one shoulder, angel on the other? I didnt think they were suppose to represent real people but an idea instead. Thats how I saw it.

Its not one for everone (as you can read from other reviews) but I would deffinately reccomend it.

I would like to say, this review tool is here to review, dont leave a review if you didnt even finish the film. I wouldnt review a painting if I had only seen the corner of it.

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Hahahahahaha Huckabees

A customer from Buckinghamshire, UK , 30/09/2005

I loved this film...they key is DON'T TAKE SERIOUSLY!!! It is a satire about philosophy and shows precisely how whichever philisophical track you choose to follow we all end up at the same place...THE START! It also shows just how confusing we make our own lives and (for me) hints that maybe if we all just accept ourselves as we are a bit more, we would get on in life with less of a feeling that we have failed or something is missing (just my take on it you understand). Hilarious and intelligent...confusing ON PURPOSE....excellent! Now go and read a book on Taoism and feel at one with the universe! x

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